John Latham in Owen Dixon's Eyes

Chapter Six John Latham in Owen Dixon’s Eyes Professor Philip Ayres Sir John Latham’s achievements are substantial in a number of fields, and it is surprising that, despite the accessibility of the Latham Papers at the National Library, no-one has written a biography, though Stuart Macintyre, who did the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, has told me that he had it in mind at one stage. Latham was born in 1877, nine years before Owen Dixon. As a student at the University of Melbourne, Latham held exhibitions and scholarships in logic, philosophy and law, and won the Supreme Court Judges’ Prize, being called to the Bar in 1904. He also found time to captain the Victorian lacrosse team. From 1917 he was head of Naval Intelligence (lieutenant-commander), and was on the Australian staff at the Versailles Peace Conference. Latham’s personality was rather aloof and cold. Philosophically he was a rationalist. From 1922-34 he was MHR for the Victorian seat of Kooyong (later held by R G Menzies and Andrew Peacock), and federal Attorney-General from 1925-29 in the Nationalist government, and again in 1931–34 in the Lyons United Australia Party government. In addition he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs from 1931-34. He resigned his seat and was subsequently appointed Chief Justice of the High Court (1935-52), taking leave in 1940-41 to go off to Tokyo as Australia’s first Minister to Japan. Latham was a connoisseur of Japanese culture. He fostered a Japan-Australia friendship society in the 1930s, and in 1934 he led an Australian diplomatic mission to Japan, arranging at that time for the visit to Australia of the Japanese training flotilla. Through Latham, Dixon met the senior Japanese officials in the legation here, and they were still socialising with these officials two weeks before Pearl Harbor. Already in the 1920s Dixon knew Latham quite well, sitting with him on the Victorian Bar Council, for example. They differed on aspects of constitutional interpretation. Dixon’s 1927 submission on behalf of the Victorian Bar Council to the Royal Commission on the Constitution of the Commonwealth foreshadows three or four of his later judgments, most importantly that in the Boilermakers’ Case (1956). In his evidence to the Commission, Dixon argued for a strict interpretation of the doctrine of the separation of powers, and referred to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, which had been vested with non-judicial (arbitral) as well as judicial powers. This, he stated, “might lead to difficulties . but no one has hitherto been courageous enough to pursue this argument”. In Dixon’s view the necessity of preserving a completely independent judiciary in a federal system may be said to be absolute: “Whether it is possible or not to confer non-judicial power upon the High Court or any other Federal court created pursuant to s.71 or s.72 is by no means clear, but we are of opinion that it should not be possible to confer such power”.1 Here the decision (upheld by the Privy Council) in the Boilermakers’ Case is anticipated by almost thirty years.2 A later letter of Dixon’s clarifies his position on this question in 1926-27. Writing to Lord Simonds (Lord Chancellor, 1951–54) in 1957, he pointed out that in 1926 he had warned Latham on the matter – as federal Attorney-General, Latham was the author of the amended Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1926. “But I don’t think he really understood”, Dixon wrote, “and of course as it was a political matter 66 with him his legal perception was not at its highest point”.3 Dixon’s principal concern in 1956, he told Lord Simonds, was “the length of time during which the provision had been allowed to stand” – because the power was derived from an Act Latham had introduced as Attorney-General, Latham would have fought hard to preserve it during his tenure as Chief Justice.4 As Dixon told Felix Frankfurter, Latham “knew that I harboured ideas about the invalidity of his measure, and often on the Bench when I thought of insisting that the matter be argued, I refrained from doing so out of deference to him”. On 13 January, 1929 Mr Justice Higgins died at the age of 77, and ten days later Dixon received a letter from Attorney-General Latham: “My dear Dixon, I wish to know whether you would be prepared to accept a seat upon the High Court bench if you were asked to do so. I have not offered the position to anyone else. I sincerely hope that your answer will be in the affirmative. I need not emphasise to you the importance, the responsibility, or the interest of the work. You would render a service to the people of Australia by undertaking it. I am sure that your appointment would be welcomed with unqualified approval, alike by the profession and the public. It is because I know that you possess the necessary qualities of character knowledge and temperament that I have pleasure in writing this letter and in awaiting what I hope will be a favourable reply. Yours J G Latham”5 Latham told Zelman Cowen that his success in persuading Dixon to accept the seat “was his finest achievement as Attorney-General”.6 The High Court Dixon joined was riven by conflicts of personality, and by the end of 1934, and probably much earlier, he was looking for an opportunity to resign, though it no doubt occurred to him that, from the position of Chief Justice, it might be easier to improve the Court’s tone and harmonise some of the discord. First, though, the octogenarian Frank Gavan Duffy, who had succeeded Isaacs in early 1931 on a “Depression” Court of six rather than seven members, would have to retire and the right appointment be made. That would not be Rich, nor would it be Starke, and as for Dixon no member of the Court had ever been appointed Chief Justice over another, though that did not mean it could not happen. The next Chief Justice, however, was destined to come from outside. In 1934 John Latham resigned as Lyons’s Attorney-General – or, as Sir John Higgins (who was close to members of Cabinet) told Dixon, “was dragged screaming from the perch”7 (alluding to Latham’s high-pitched voice) – in favour of Robert Menzies, who took Latham’s Kooyong seat, moving from Victorian to federal politics. This move, in the period leading up to the 1934 elections, was probably engineered by a small group of people concerned at Latham’s lack of popular appeal, and with the intention of positioning Menzies to take over from Lyons after a short time. The circumstances are obscure. Latham returned to the Bar, with tacit assurances, it was said, that Gavan Duffy’s seat would soon be his.8 On the other hand, should the Lyons government fall at the next elections, in 1937 or earlier, and Gavan Duffy not retire until after that, then Evatt would probably be Labor’s choice for the position. These were among Dixon’s and Evatt’s preoccupations through the summer of 1934-35. Later in 1935 Dixon decided that he would not accept the Victorian Chief Justiceship, which some people thought might be offered to him, telling Latham this on 6 September, when he was invited to the latter’s home to meet the Japanese Consul General, Kuramatsu Murai. Latham took Dixon aside: “… to implore me not to accept the Vic CJ if offered. [I] Told him it had not been & would not although some time ago I was sounded. He said it would be the end of the HC. I said if he became 67 the CJ of the HC to see me at once. He wd be horrified. But he said that if I wished to be CJ of it & the government would offer it, he would withdraw. I said it was very kind. But if he took the unthankful job I would support him to the full”.9 Dixon could hardly indicate an interest in the Chief Justiceship unless he knew that Menzies, as Attorney-General, would back him for it, but Menzies had not sounded him out. On 19 September Dixon saw his close friend Sir John Higgins, who occasionally saw the Prime Minister, and was told of a recent discussion in which Lyons had told Higgins that if Latham were not to be appointed, the Ministry would be regarded as breaking faith, but that he personally thought Latham unsuitable, and would not be sorry to see Gavan Duffy hang on. Menzies, he said, was anxious to appoint Latham. That night Dixon took the express to Sydney, where all sorts of rumours about the Chief Justiceship were flying around: that Earle Page, Leader of the Country Party, was opposed to Latham, that Menzies had said no one should go from politics to the bench, even that Menzies was sick of the question and would take the position himself.10 Then on 10 October Dixon learned from Rich that Latham had been appointed. In Dixon’s mind Latham was a usurper, and that view would colour their relationship for the future. The swearing-in was on the 17th – “Menzies saw me afterwards”, Dixon noted, “& I was very curt”. Latham began his new career with a cutting comment to Rich, who was explaining his failure to send written congratulations. “Excuse accepted”, Latham replied. “It is not an excuse”, Rich protested, “it is an explanation”.11 Starke forced a re-argument in one case, threw a fit of pique in another12 – it was business as usual in the “new” Latham Court.13 Dixon thought politics unfitted a man for judicial office.

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